Appearing last night on CSN’s SportsNet Central, Ryan Zimmerman talked about the possibility of the Nationals making their first postseason appearance, the clubhouse’s support of Stephen Strasburg’s shutdown and the possibility of winning his second Gold Glove Award this fall.

(He also was gentlemanly enough to hold Kelli Johnson’s umbrella during the interview as rain began to fall at Nationals Park.)

We interrupt this discussion for a brief vocabulary diversion. One of the things I love about baseball is the rich lexicon, which I suppose is what comes of writing or talking about games that take place almost every day for a big chunk of the year. For the past several days, Ray had been using a term I'd not heard before, pea-rod.You're spelling it wrong. It's not pea-rod, it's PRod, which is a shorthand for Player with the surname Rodriguez. ARod, KRod, HRod, IRod, they're all PRods. There's even a SABR stat for them – VORP, which is Value Over Replacement PRod. HRod's VORP is like a sine curve, sometimes way positive, sometimes way negative.

She better not be flirting, his fiance will deck her. I have a theory on why these guys are playing so well on the road. Five of them are getting married in the off season and they are just happy to be away from the wedding plans. That was pretty subtle, though. One of the female St. Louis reporters did an interview with David Freese that was the most awkward thing I have ever seen. She asked him if he was single, hit on him the whole time and said "I love you " at the end. She was unprofessional to the max and you could see that he was squirming. I think Kelly ( whoever she is) did just fine. Amber Theoharis does a good interview.And it stays strictly professional.

Awesome. You're spelling it wrong. It's not pea-rod, it's PRod, which is a shorthand for Player with the surname Rodriguez. ARod, KRod, HRod, IRod, they're all PRods. There's even a SABR stat for them – VORP, which is Value Over Replacement PRod. HRod's VORP is like a sine curve, sometimes way positive, sometimes way negative.

Interesting interview with Reggie Jefferson. Note especially his hitting approach.AndyHHS: You didn’t walk all that much in the majors but hit .300 with an awesome career .350 batting average on balls put in play (only 2 players–John Kruk and Derek Jeter–had a higher BAbip over the years of your career.) Was your batting approach designed to be so aggressive?RJ: Yes it was. My strength was the ability to hit the ball to all fields. So it didn’t bother me where a pitcher threw me.I had the mind-set that I was going to hit the ball where it was pitched. For a guy with a big strike zone like I had, that approach won’t allow you to walk much but it made me a really good hitter.Also, he quit pinch hitting because he was a "1B/DH" guy, but he would not have quit if he were a middle-infielder.reggie-jeffersonhttp://www.highheatstats.com/2012/08/reggie-jefferson-the-high-heat-stats-interview-reggiejefferson/

swami, yes, I remember that. It was, as my nieces like to say, "awk-ward." That said, I believe the gal in question was a reporter for one of those morning tv talk shows, so not exactly in the hard-hitting (so so speak) journalism category. Wonder whether there would have been the same amount of online criticism with a male journalist and a female athlete? Possibly.Anyway, let's go to the video.

Speaking of Ray Knight — I am ready for FP to be back. He has been watching and tweeting the whole time – he has a really quirky sense of humor. Knight is a little too much "in my day" and he has over-the-top man love for Davey Johnson. Is anything seriously wrong with Johnny Holiday, though? They said he was under the weather – it's been a while.He is not a young man.

Just googled CAA – lots of huge names, Halladay,Howard, Posey, Freese, Braun. Only Nat listed on their home page was Zim.I guess we only know a lot about Boras because he keeps himself right out there with the media. I often wonder how the players choose and what the difference ends up being.

Can't see the point in bringing up Perry, as per the District Sports Page blog, as they have spent the last several mos. turning him into a starter. Why would they want him to shift his focus back to relieving? Now, if the Div. Championship gets clinched early, I could see letting him start a game at the end of the season, particularly to get the rotation lined up for the first game of the LDS.

Off days are just so odd – especially after a loss. Making up things to talk about. Hardly anyone around. I predict by 10 tonight, it will be a ghost town in here. After the west coast swing and some rain delays, the fans and blog posters need an off night, too.

So. Would somebody walk me through the scenario of Giolito's recovery (assuming all goes well). I assume he won't be ready to throw competitively, next year, so how many innings in '14? He's so young… What season looks likely as his first "no limit" situation? I'm thinking not before '16, but what do I know? Thanks….

I have always like Kelli, especially her Redskins stuff. I find her to be knowledgeable and I think she puts in the time and studies her craft. I think Ryan is married so its really no big deal here. Just a good interview with solid questions. I am wondering though after reading last nights posts how Ryan has a chance at the Gold Glove when so many experts here don't even want him on the field. Maybe I am missing something?(please read all the sarcasm into this as necessary). Its not easy in todays card world but I have every Eddie Yost card ever produced and will be trying to do the same thing with Ryan.Go Nats!!

Am I correct that we now have one spot open on the 40 man? And am I also correct that the consensus here is that it will be filled by the reliever, I think his name is Garcia. The other callups will have to be on the 40 man or they need to do something with Wang to create another space. If its just players on that roster then I think Brown, Maya, and Perry would be logical. I have to be honest that I did not read the Kerr piece so maybe I will visit that next.Go Nats

"This dude is nothing but a blogger. Which means not only does he know nothing, he knows less than nothing."His reasoning is sound, and has as its starting point Davey's own comments on who will be brought up. To say that the guy is "nothing but a blogger", and, therefore, "not only does he know nothing, he knows less than nothing", is not only not a rational argument, it is a non-sequitor and is not even an intelligent statement.

I'm a commenter and proud of it. imho, not much difference between the fan blogger and fan commenter classes other than that the former decided to create blogs in order to further broadcast their opinions.Our humble host, of course, is in a blog class by himself. (That's a good thing, btw.) No, worse – he's a blog commenter. As are we all.